Lang was visibly upset in his interview following the first period of Friday’s game. The game was tied at 1, but RPI had taken three penalties and barely seen the offensive zone. They would go onto win that game 2-1 after Tapper sniped a powerplay goal, but it sloppy.

Saturday night was a different story. LIU didn’t get a shot on goal until nearly 10 minutes in. Lang called it one of the best periods of hockey that the team had played that year. While the final score didn’t fully reflect it, this was a much more comfortable game for RPI. They defended cleaner, won the puck possession battle, and ultimately came away with a sweep on the weekend.

Two very different games, but the team found ways to win both. Let’s break down some of the highlights:

1. RPI was down a man for nearly a quarter of the game and won 2-1

Six powerplay opportunities and just over a minute of empty net time at the end added up to nearly 15 minutes of shorthanded time for the Engineers to deal with on Friday night. And deal with it they did. RPI kept their perfect penalty kill streak intact not only throughout Friday night, but into Saturday as well, leaving them at a perfect 14/14 on the season.

While this may be more an indictment on LIU’s powerplay, which hasn’t scored in 22 opportunities this season, it has been comforting to see the penalty kill be a strength early on for the Engineers.

2. Sobieski is deadly in the offensive zone if given space

After a three-point night on Saturday, Kaz Sobieski is now tied with Rullers for the team lead in both goals and points. He was named as one of the ECAC stars of the night on Saturday, and for good reason. LIU had no answer for him in the offensive zone. Give him space to set up for a shot in the upper slot, and he’s got a good chance of putting in the back of the net.

In the defensive zone he has still had a few missteps, but pairing him with Ryan Michael, who has had a very steady start his college career, has been a success.

3. Klassek is a “business handler”

Klassek hasn’t had quite the offensive output that Sobieski has, but his work in the defensive zone has been stellar so far. The description I keep coming back to for him is “business handler.” Whether it’s winning a puck battle along the back boards, getting a clean poke check in, or chipping out with the perfect weight to avoid an icing, Klassek has just made every play asked of him this season. Handling business consistently.

4. Still trying to find chemistry with the forward group

Lang shuffled up the forward lines on Saturday night after three straight games with effectively the same group up top. Only Bono and Lindberg had swapped spots on the fourth line. The shakeup worked out for Alfie Lindberg and Ian Scherzer, who had several nice sequences together with Sobieski, leading to two goals.

It still feels as though there is more to be unlocked with the wingers in the top six. Guys like Hadland, Gavin, Yurchuk, and Goukler all have shown glimpses, but it hasn’t fully clicked for any of them yet. Rullers and Sitar have looked great to start the year, but if Lang can really get some of the supporting pieces going as well, this could be a potent offense.

5. McCallum gets a first look in net

Krawchuk has obviously had a great start to the year, with a .960 save percentage, but Lang decided to go with McCallum for game two against the Sharks. It was his first game at the college level, and he acquitted himself well. 24 saves on 26 shots on goal. Going forward, you’d probably want him to do a little better on LIU’s second goal, where he could have come out early to clear the puck, but a moment of hesitation in a first college game isn’t the end of the world. It’s been a promising start from the goalie tandem so far.

There was no shortage of questions surrounding the RPI hockey program as they entered year two under Eric Lang. 14 new faces and still deep in the culture building phase of the program will do that to you. But on opening weekend in front of a healthy homecoming weekend crowd, these youthful Engineers showed flashes of what Lang’s vision of the program appears to be. Friday night’s 3-0 shutout win was exciting, meaningful, and a flag planted in the ground that this group means business. It’s not the finished product, not even remotely close. But you saw more glimpses of the vision across the board. It would have been nice to convert Saturday’s 2-1 3rd period lead into a sweep, but there will be many lessons for this young group to learn from it. All in, from the results on the ice, to the unveiling of the Houston Field House renovations, and the enhanced marketing and buzz around the program, this weekend was an unequivocal win.

5 Things:

#1: Nate Krawchuk may be a top 20 goaltender in the country.

Maybe higher than that too. Nate’s 36 save shutout on Friday was one of the best displays of goaltending I’ve seen in an RPI uniform in years. Any questions about his hot finish to last year’s season were totally answered by his efforts this weekend. I still think Ethan McCallum will get some run, but RPI is going to need Chucky to keep building upon this great start.

#2: RPI’s one-two punch at Center is very real.

RPI scored 5 times this weekend and 4 of them came from Filip Sitar and Rainers Rullers. Add in Rullers’ hat-trick in the exhibition against Army, and well, you do the math. Lang really needs those two to carry the load up front and they got off to an excellent start. Beyond the goal scoring though, they both made their presence known in the defensive end. Sitar in particular is a true 200-foot center with a complete game, who brought such a calming presence to his line with two of the younger guys. And Rullers, who looks like RPI’s best player so far, has been outstanding.

#3: Forward depth looks a little thin.

My biggest concern with this group after Smith and Evaschesen decommitted from the program was the depth at forward. Looking back on this weekend, that unfortunately was the case. Beyond Sitar and Rullers’ big weekends, I thought Goukler made a big impact. Only Jack Brackett has rivaled his speed of recent memory, and Goukler is way more skilled. Gavin made a few plays, Tapper was steady, but beyond that the forwards were quiet. It’s hard to tell how skilled OSU’s defense was, so I think next weekend against LIU will give us some helpful data points to assess the unit. Nonetheless, it can’t just be Sitar and Rullers offensively.

#4: Development was noticeable.

I’ve been having a hard time articulating this thought since the weekend, but I felt like every time one of the returners touched the puck I breathed a sigh of relief. Which I think is best illustrated through Sobieski and Klassek, who had excellent first years but were spotty defensively. This weekend though, I thought they were erasers in their own end, initiated on offense, and consistently made the smart play. I’ve hit on Rullers, Sitar, and Krawchuk now too, and I even thought Buckley was a step faster. We’ve seen Lang’s recruiting ability, but I thought this weekend read very nicely for our first glimpse at player development under him. It will be a fun and important theme to monitor.

#5: Almost everything “non-hockey” was a step in the right direction.

We’ve talked a lot on here about the lack of support that the program has gotten over the years. And as the page turned to the Lang era, it felt like a good time for a top-down analysis of the way the program has been run. That’s what a new coach is supposed to do. Fast forward to Friday night, and I thought 18-months into Eric’s tenure, you could see tangible evidence of a program being run with more seriousness. The renovations to the Field House looked awesome. The athletic department running student season ticket promos to get more students in the stands. Consistent, exciting social media content all weekend to bring fans behind the scenes. It just feels like they’re finally getting the little things right, which may take time to feel an impact from but was an absolute necessity to change.

Much more work to be done, but last weekend was a win all things considered. The Engineers host LIU for two at the Field House this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for our preview. Let’s go red.

RPI’s season began on Friday night with an exhibition victory over Army. They won 5-4 in a game they largely controlled. A hat trick and 4 points from Rullers led the way for an exciting start to the season. After watching the game, here are the notes that I have jotted down (in a pretty random order because I just wrote things down as I was watching).

• Forecheck and compete looks a lot better with more speed to get to the spots in a timely manner.

  It was definitely more disruptive to Army’s breakouts and caused more turnovers and issues than what we saw last year.

• Sloppy defensively, there were lots of breakdowns.

  Army was able to get a decent amount of good scoring chances, but most of them felt like miscues and breakdowns by RPI rather than them just beating the defense.

• Buckley looks a step faster.

  Last year, his shot and skill level allowed him to get top 6 minutes right away, but it felt like his skating was holding him back a bit. He looks a little faster this year, which I think will go a long way for his game. He had a nice goal off the rush to cap RPI’s scoring.

• Mostly just rolled the lines.

  For this exhibition game, RPI rolled out the entire team and rather than distributing the ice time like a normal game, they pretty much just spread out the 5 lines evenly throughout the game. I think this was good to get all the newcomers acclimated.

• Krawchuk looks great.

  He had a few grade A saves and was moving extremely well. He also was doing a great job tracking the puck. His only goal against was on a pretty good shot and wasn’t a bad one to let up. He looks ready to pickup where he left off last season.

• Top line is as advertised.

  The top line of Hadland - Rullers - Tapper look just as advertised. They were RPI’s most dangerous line and created a few different scoring chances at 5v5. Tapper had the puck on his stick A LOT and looked really good with it. Rullers was all over the place and had a very well-rounded game beyond his obvious counting stats. Hadland didn’t look quite as good as those two and seemed to be adjusting to the pace of the college game, but that’s not unexpected for a freshman and I still liked his game. The three of them also seemed to have pretty good chemistry already.

• Goukler’s skating looks incredible.

  He is easily the best skater I’ve seen at RPI. Jack Brackett might have been a little faster in straight lines, but Goukler is way more agile and shifty. He lost the puck a lot when he had it due to some good defensive plays and not making quick enough choices with it. That seemed to be another instance of adjusting to the pace of the college game for a freshman, but I expect he will adjust very quickly. Even with some of those turnovers, he created some great chances and once he is acclimated, he is going to create TONS of offense.

• Yurchuk is also as advertised.

  He looked very skilled with the puck on his stick, and he had some excellent passes to create chances for RPI. The first goal came from a great pass on the power play to give Rullers a tap-in.

• McCallum struggled in his first collegiate action.

  The first goal was just a really good shot on a breakaway, but the others, I did not really like from him. The second goal against him was bad. It was a normal shot that he should have saved, but he let it squeak through him. The third goal against was a bad rebound that he left hanging right in the crease. Krawchuk was clearly better this game and definitely has the edge right now. I’m not too worried about McCallum and think he’ll be totally fine. It’s typical for freshmen to struggle in net in their first action; Krawchuk did that just last year!

• The power play was awesome.

  You might be saying, “they had 3 PP goals, duh!!” However, I think just looking at goals can be misleading sometimes. There can be a lucky bounce, defensive breakdowns, etc. That was not the case here. The power play was consistently dangerous and looked great. They were zipping the puck around quickly and effectively and got a lot of really good looks. The 3 goals were a reward for great puck movement and shots, and the PP looked about as good as it could have.

• I was not impressed with Guo this game.

  I didn’t think it was a great game defensively for him, and it looked like a couple of the breakdowns were on him. His skating looked good, and he moved the puck well. It’s not like it was all bad; just needs to clean up defensively. He’ll be fine.

• In general, I felt a little underwhelmed by the defense corps.

  This kinda goes along with the previous point, but with the breakdowns that they had defensively, I thought the defense corps was just okay. I liked the attacking mentality they showed in the offensive zone, and they moved pucks pretty well in transition though.

• Hilditch looked improved from last year.

  I was pretty impressed with the improvement Hilditch showed. He looked more confident out there, and he was moving really well and played a strong game in his own end in my opinion. He was also a top PKer for the team, and I think he looks capable of cracking the lineup consistently in a key shutdown role.

• Slezak looked better than expected.

  I was expecting Slezak to struggle this game. Not only is he a freshman, but he also missed all of the last year due to injury. He shattered those expectations those and looked pretty steady! He played a simple game but was effective. In general, I felt good about the depth on defense with Hilditch, Slezak, and Heroux as well having solid games by keeping it simple and playing hard.

Lastly, I wanted to make note of the special teams units since you won’t see those on a line chart.

PP1

Yurchuk Rullers Tapper
Sobieski Burzynski
Ross replaced Sobieski on this unit for RPI’s 2nd PP but then he moved back down.

PP2

Goukler Sitar Gavin
Buckley Klassek

PP3

Scherzer Ross Hadland
Michael Serlin
Guo replaced Michael on this unit for the last PP. Usually there’s only 2 PP units, so I don’t expect they will actually roll 2 out there for the real games.

PK1

Lodewyk Lindberg
Klassek Hilditch
Goukler replaced Lindberg for the 2nd PK.

PK2

Sitar Hadland
Michael Heroux
This unit was only out there for the 1st PK because the 2nd PK ended with a goal pretty quickly. It’s hard to know the full PK personnel right now because there were only 2, and the 2nd one ended very quickly.

Overall, there was lots to build off of this game. The transition game and power play were both awesome, and the team was very disciplined to only give Army two power plays. I also thought they defended well and didn’t allow Army to have much possession.

The main thing to clean up is the defensive breakdowns. Without them, Army would have barely generated any offense, and they can’t afford to do that against Ohio State. Ohio State has the talent to really make them pay. If they get those cleaned up though, this looks like a fun and exciting team, and I think they are for sure capable of beating Ohio State even as a Big Ten team!

Well, it has been a week since RPI’s season officially ended, and it’s given us some time to reflect on the season that was. The 2025-26 RPI Engineers were a team defined by progress and hard work. It was a team starved for goal-scoring talent back in October as 20 new faces came together for the first time. And while they failed to advance out of the first round, the growth that this team had was nothing short of remarkable. Engineer fans should leave this season feeling incredibly optimistic for what’s to come in this program.

Clarkson Game Breakdown

We highlighted in our previews how RPI was a bit fortunate in the season series to get timely scoring and some strong goaltending. The reason we like to use metrics in our work is because they should act as a regression to the mean. While RPI had won those two regular season games, Clarkson did possess the puck more and out chance them, which is why this game made me a bit nervous. It was no surprise that RPI’s tight defensive style showed through in this one, but Clarkson really cleaned it up in their own end and made it tough for the Engineers to generate anything.

The one lapse that the Knights made was a misplay in their own end leading right to an Ian Scherzer goal. Clarkson answered just a minute later on a goal from Tate Taylor to make it 1-1. This one had the makings of a playoff classic as it grinded deep into the 3rd, but Justin Cote’s shot from between the circles gave the Knights all they would need. Krawchuk probably wants that one back, but he had made 4-5 saves before that to keep RPI in this one. Clarkson was always going to be a tough draw for RPI given their heavy possession style, hunger to avoid a 3rd loss to RPI, and the challenge of Cheel Arena. RPI wasn’t bad on this night, they just didn’t quite generate enough to put Clarkson on their heels. It’s a disappointing finish for a team that was surging and had high hopes of playing another weekend.

Offseason Lookahead

We have a bunch of offseason content planned where we will go more in-depth on what needs to be upgraded, potential departures, arrivals, and the recruiting class. For now though, here is what we know:

Definitely Departing (4): Dovar Tinling (F), Luc Wilson (F), Lucas Matta (F/D), Trevor Russell (D)
Expected Arrivals (7): Jordan Gavin (F), Caleb Hadland (F), Josh Evaschesen (F), Harrison Lodewyk (F), James Guo (D), Grayson Burzynski (D), Ryan Michael (D)

In our opinion, the high priority keeps are: Rainers Rullers (F), Filip Sitar (F), Matthew Buckley (F), Ian Scherzer (F), Tyler Wallace (F), Thomas Klassek (D), Kaz Sobieski (D), Nate Krawchuk (G)

Well, 4 does not equal 7, and Lang said on his radio spot this week that they will look to upgrade anywhere they can, so I do think some departures will come. I don’t expect heavy usage of the transfer portal like last year, but that is another thing to monitor too.

To wrap the ‘25-’26 season, we want to thank all of you that support us here at The Field House and have been behind the program every step of the way. It has been a transformational year for RPI Hockey and we truly feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg for things to come. Stay tuned here as we take you through the Engineer offseason and look ahead to the ‘26-’27 season in a few short months. Let’s go red!

Eric Lang was adamant all offseason that his group would be the best at things that require zero talent, and they would be playing their best hockey come March. Both seem like an unequivocal yes so far. The Engineers did exactly what they needed to this weekend, with two very strong efforts against Brown and Yale. Neither were flashy, but they seemed to be in complete control of the game both nights. Nate Krawchuk was great again, the veterans continue to lead the way, and it’s all resulting in a winning formula that has carried RPI to 5-2-1 in the last 8.

Friday: 3-1 Win at Brown

Some of you may know that I am not local anymore, so I don’t get to catch many games in person, but I was able to get to Brown on Friday to see this one. It was a lot of fun to sit right behind the bench and see the game up close. Not to mention, I think there were more RPI fans than Brown fans there. RPI was the better team in the first 10 but Brown scored on a flukey goal that Krawchuk probably wants back. 2 breakaway goals for the Engineers by Dovar Tinling and Jagger Tapper put them up 1 into the break. RPI had 7 powerplay minutes and nearly 20 shots in the first period, but the game definitely tightened up after that.

Brown had a goal waived off late in the 2nd for goaltender interference that would have tied it up. RPI’s 2nd period was sloppy, but I thought they were pretty intentional in the 3rd and snuffed out most of Brown’s scoring chances. Tyler Wallace found the empty net and RPI took it 3-1.

Saturday: 4-2 Win at Yale

With Clarkson’s win on Friday, RPI could no longer play for home ice on Saturday, but this game against Yale would determine who finished 9th. After a somewhat muted first frame, it was the Luc Wilson and Thomas Klassek show for the Engineers. Wilson scored from the high slot off a sweet feed from Dovar Tinling early in the 2nd. Klassek sent a rocket slapshot from the point that found its way by Jack Stark to double the lead. Tyler Wallace would get a piece of a Klassek shot to send the Engineers into the 2nd break up 3. Yale struck for one before Luc Wilson deflected a Klassek shot to make it 4-1. It was a 4-point night for Klassek, bringing his point total up to 18 to lead all Engineer defenseman. Yale found one more goal late, but it was a fairly stress-free win for RPI in this one.

ECAC Seeding

Byes: Quinnipiac, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton

5v12: Brown at Union

6v11: SLU at Harvard

7v10: Yale at Colgate

8v9: RPI at Clarkson

This season was a bit of a resurgence for an ECAC that has struggled post-COVID. Reid Cashman’s revival of Dartmouth, Ben Syer’s progress at Princeton, and Josh Hauge’s job at Union have all pulled the league upwards. Harvard looks to be headed the right direction again, Clarkson was young this year, and RPI seems poised for a resurgence under Lang.

I think Clarkson could be a tough draw given the long road trip and the talent on their roster. It is tough to beat a team 3 times, but RPI had a lot of success against them this year. Finishing 9th is a very positive result given the hand Lang was dealt and their struggles early in the season. Remember that the first round of the ECAC playoffs is just 1 game now, and I believe this one will be Friday night. It’s crazy to say that it’s playoff time again — so stay tuned for our preview of the Clarkson game later this week! Let’s go red!

Freakout magic is back once again. We have been preaching about progress, underlying metrics, recruiting, and other behind the scenes reasons that the fanbase should be excited right now. But Rainers Rullers hammering home that go-ahead slapshot on the powerplay Saturday night lit a spark in the Field House that we haven’t seen in a long time. Eric Lang had come real close to a few statement wins in year 1, wins he could take to a passionate but frustrated fanbase to say, “Look, better days are coming”. He thought he had it the MVP Arena before Union scored twice in the final 2 minutes of play and again in OT to win the Mayor’s Cup. Last week they came close to knocking off perennial power Cornell at the Field House. But in front of over 4500 fans at the Houston Field House, Rainers Rullers and this group of Engineers showed the culmination of a year’s worth of tremendous progress within the program. This fanbase truly has a reason to believe, and better yet, I think this recent hot streak is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s to come.

Friday vs. Dartmouth

RPI fell on Friday to a Dartmouth team that is having a dream year and a near lock for the NCAA tournament. Ethan Bono opened the scoring in the 2nd period but 3 straight Dartmouth goals would carry them to a 3-1 victory. The nation’s leading goal scorer, Hayden Stavroff, extended his lead to 4 with his 23rd and 24th tallies of the season. Bruno Bruveris got the nod for RPI and stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced. Underlyings suggest the game was about even, as the xG battle came out 2.4-2.3 in favor of RPI, and the Corsi was fairly close.

One could argue that Dartmouth is one of the programs RPI is looking to model in this rebuild. They are selling a very similar message to recruits: elite coach, elite education, improving conference, and hopefully sustained success in the years to come. Dartmouth is a few years ahead of RPI since Reid Cashman is in year 5, but they have used the “high cycle” (recruiting older players and staying old) to their advantage the way Lang says he hopes to.

Saturday vs. Harvard

There was no shortage of festivities on Freakout day with the annual alumni game, extensive media coverage, and all sorts of gatherings in Troy. Harvard took it to RPI in the 1st, and had a goal waived off that would have made it 2-0, thanks to a brilliant challenge by Lang. RPI finally drew even halfway through the 3rd on a goal from Ian Scherzer that appeared to go in off the skate of a Harvard player. The aforementioned Rullers goal came at 4v3 and was an absolute rocket of a shot. The Engineers were strong once they took the lead and finished it off with an ENG to win 3-1.

The Tyler Hotson goal in the final minute 2 years ago, and last year’s win were definitely exciting Freakouts, but this one is honestly my favorite one since the Polacek goal in 2011. To see how excited this group of guys were, a group that largely met for the first time in April and now seems so unified, was nothing short of amazing. This was a great day for all that are involved with the men’s hockey program.

5 Things

1. It would basically take a miracle, but RPI does have a path to playoff home ice.

   RPI is T-10th right now in the league, 1 point back from 9th and 6 back from 8th. Clarkson is 8th, whom RPI swept this year. If Clarkson is swept by Colgate & Cornell, and RPI sweeps Brown and Yale, they would be 8th as long as SLU doesn’t do the same.

2. Starts have been split, but Krawchuk clearly gives RPI the best chance to win.

   Nate Krawchuk has been a little banged up which is why Bruveris has seen some time, but it’s hard to argue with Nate’s production. His development this year has been incredible and is a huge testament to the work that Mathias Lange has done.

3. Freshman on fire

   3 assists for Thomas Klassek on Saturday, 3 points in the last 3 for Ian Scherzer and Matthew Buckley to go along with Krawchuk’s standout play. RPI has a nice group of freshmen that seem to be hitting their stride late in the year.

4. Scoring with depth is brilliant when it works.

   When a team lacks a true top batch of talent, they say that they will have to “score with depth”. Well, that was the narrative around RPI for the 1st half, and it was frustrating when they couldn’t score. Now? Production from nearly every line and D pair is making the Engineers a very well-balanced team.

5. Leave it all on the line.

   The last regular season weekend coming up, and RPI is set to face two teams that they are battling for position with. This should be a great weekend of hockey with a high level of urgency.

Accounting for the quality of opponents and RPI’s play level, I think this past weekend was pound-for-pound their best of the year. These two home games were a culmination of a lot of progress this season from a group of 20 new faces. The Engineers have beaten a few inferior opponents and had close calls against top teams, but they haven’t put it all together in the league. They have struggled to score all year but are extremely well coached and difficult to play against. RPI took #9 Cornell right to the brink Friday night and thoroughly outplayed Colgate on Saturday. Let’s take a look at what went right:

Friday: 1-1 Tie vs #9 Cornell

Cornell is just tough. They are one of those programs in college hockey that has an identity year-in and year-out, recruiting physical players that are hard to play against. When RPI has been down the past 5 years, these Cornell teams would repeatedly “out-system” RPI and completely prevent scoring chances. Friday night, I thought RPI gave them a taste of their own medicine and threw their game right back at them. Cornell won the underlying’s battle, and one could argue that Bruno Bruveris kept them in the game too, but the two teams played very close to even all night.

RPI got on the board first once again on a 2nd period goal from Mathieu Bourgault. I couldn’t tell if Bourgault got a tip on Jimmy Goffredo’s shot or if it merely hit him and went in, but nonetheless it drew first blood. Aiden Long tied it halfway through the 3rd for Cornell and that would be all the scoring in this one. RPI had the puck for most of overtime but failed to muster too many quality chances before eventually falling in the 4th shootout round. It goes down as a tie for their overall record, which is surprisingly their first of the year.

Saturday: 6-1 Win vs. Colgate

Colgate on the other hand is down this year, let’s not bury the lede. Mike Harder hit the ground running at Colgate, posting back-to-back 3rd place finishes in the league. They sit in 7th in the ECAC now and struggled out of conference, but they are still a more talented team than RPI is this year. On this night though, none of that mattered. RPI took it to them for 60 consecutive minutes, this one was truly never close. 3 assists for Filip Sitar, and a goal and assist for Matthew Buckley, Tyler Wallace, Ian Scherzer and Alfred Lindberg all led the way.

Outside of the SLU game last weekend, RPI has gotten better and better goaltending as the year has gone on. Nate Krawchuk has certainly made his case in year 1 to get a lot of work in net going forward.

Playoff Implications

If the season ended today, RPI would go to Colgate for a single game set in the ECAC playoffs. They sit just 4 points out of 8th, but also 3 points from last, so this is a highly contested race. Realistically, RPI is most likely to finish between 8th and 12th right now with Colgate having 8 points on them.

Dartmouth and Harvard figure to be tough games at home this weekend, but RPI finishes at Yale and Brown which will have major implications. Since Clarkson, SLU, Brown, and Yale play each other this weekend, RPI probably needs to get one win against Harvard and Dartmouth to stay in the race with these teams.

It’s hard not to like the compete level of this team late in the season. They play extremely hard, are one of the least penalized teams in the country and have a goaltender starting to play very well. Lang said he wants his team playing their best hockey of the year in February and March, and they seem to be doing just that. Let’s all stay behind this team into the stretch run as they look to build upon this big weekend. With the last home games of the year and Freakout! night on tap, this weekend figures to be a good one. Let’s go red!

A confusing weekend in the North Country left RPI with exactly as many points as I expected, just not quite the way I thought it would happen. In all honesty, I sent a few texts Friday night as RPI skated out to a 4-0 lead saying that a 6-point weekend would likely put us within 2-3 points of playoff home ice.

I believe the last time RPI swept the season series from Clarkson was the 2009-10 season, a year in which Brandon Pirri and Chase Polacek headlined an exciting Engineer team. It’s been a long time since then, but RPI has quietly ripped off 4 in a row at Cheel Arena dating back to their playoff win in 2024. Appleton Arena has not been as kind to the program of late, as RPI hasn’t won there since the ‘21-’22 season. If memory serves, RPI was missing a bunch of players in that game due to COVID. That feels like a lifetime ago.

Friday: 4-3 Win at Clarkson

RPI raced out to a big lead in this one with some production from their young guns. Matthew Buckley potted a PPG on the doorstep on a high effort play from the Engineer powerplay. Ian Scherzer notched his first as an Engineer after coming very close in the past few weeks. That was nice to see for Ian, who looks to have the makings of a very high-quality player that Lang’s staff should be keen on developing. Ethan Bono made it 3 just 8 seconds later on a 2-on-1 off the center-ice draw. Rainers Rullers notched RPI’s 4th goal as his hot streak rolled on, and the Engineers looked to be smooth sailing to a solid road win at this point.

Clarkson threw everything at RPI over the final 37 minutes, outshooting them 39-15 in the final two frames and coming up just shy of drawing even. Unlike the Mayor’s Cup, RPI held on for a much needed 3 league points in this road contest. Nathan Krawchuk was outstanding with 44 saves and deserves a ton of credit for this win. Clarkson’s team looks a lot like I expect RPI to next year, with a lot of young CHL talent. RPI outworked them in both these games and got some high-end goaltending to notch two wins.

Saturday: 7-3 Loss at Saint Lawrence

The Engineers had a chance for a big weekend Saturday night when they headed over to Appleton Arena. But right from the jump things went awry, as their standout freshman goaltender was sidelined with an injury and 3rd-stringer Carson Dorfman got the nod. He let in two within the first five minutes, and Coach Lang quickly went to Bruno Bruveris in the 2nd after a shorthanded goal.

RPI looked poised to tie this one after a Kaz Sobieski goal and an upcoming powerplay. But Dovar Tinling’s stick snapped as he attempted a pass leading right to the shorthanded goal. Alfred Lindberg finally got his first one at RPI and Jagger Tapper scored as well, but it wasn’t enough for RPI on this night.

Before learning hockey analytics, shots on goal was essentially the only way I would assess how a team had played and who should have won. RPI had 9.9 expected goals in the season series to SLU’s 6, meaning they should have won each game by 2 goals. Instead, they lost the season series 11-6. This is caused by many things and is part of the reason that goaltending and elite goal scorers are so important. RPI outplayed St. Lawrence both times and had more scoring chances but unfortunately leaves the season series with nothing to show for it.

Standings

RPI sits in 11th but has 2 games at hand on SLU who leads them by just a point. 4 of RPI’s final 6 games come against the top half of the league which will be a challenge, but they are all played at home.

It’s stretch time in Eric Lang’s first year at RPI and the Engineers are hungry for points. Home ice in the ECAC playoff is nearly impossible at this point, but I do think double-digit wins is feasible. RPI will welcome in Cornell and Colgate this weekend in their 2nd to last weekend at the Field House. Let’s Go Red!

Last weekend, RPI got a split at home against Yale and Brown. They fell to Yale 8-3 on Friday night but bounced back to beat Brown 4-1 on Saturday night. As you can tell by the scores, it was certainly an up and down weekend. Let’s quickly review it.

Yale

I honestly don’t think that the Yale game was as bad as the 8-3 score. It wasn’t like the team got thoroughly dominated all game. I’d say this game is more indicative of RPI’s roster and the way it needs to win games than the way they played. What do I mean by that?

Well, in the first period, I actually thought RPI outplayed Yale. They held the advantage on the shot clock 13-8 and had some really good looks. Yale was very opportunistic and scored on 2 out of their 8 shots to go up 2-0, but despite that, RPI had been outplaying them in terms of possession and scoring chances. Luc Wilson was able to score to bring it back to 2-1.

The second period is really where things went awry. The shorthanded goal they allowed that put Yale up 3-1 seemed to be where things turned. This is where the roster and the way RPI needs to win games comes into play. Basically, this RPI team lacks natural scoring talent as we all know. They have had struggles scoring all year because they don’t possess the puck enough, and they have struggled finishing their chances. Because of that, the way the team needs to win games is 2-1 or 3-2 games where they control the puck enough, play well in transition to move the puck quickly up the ice, stay in the lead, and get good goaltending. They are not built to come back in a 3-1 game. They don’t control the puck enough to get enough scoring chances naturally to come back from that deficit. This meant that once they got down with that back-breaking shorthanded goal, they tried to open things up to generate more offense, but that sacrifices the defense. In this game, the floodgates opened quickly once they did that because of the defensive sacrifices, and they did not get the saves they needed.

The score looks bad because of how the game devolved when RPI tried to make a comeback, but the shots and scoring chances were practically even. Sometimes that’s the way a game can spiral out of control for a rebuilding team.

Brown

The Brown game went much better for RPI with a 4-1 win. This was also a game that I thought was closer than the score, but this time RPI was on the right end of it.

The first period was pretty even until about halfway through when RPI went to the power play. Off of a zone entry, Dovar Tinling had the puck in the middle of the ice and saw a streaking Rainers Rullers, who was headed right to the net. Tinling made a beautiful pass just behind the defensemen, and Rullers easily got by them with a full head of steam to get to the puck first. With him all alone against the goalie, he made a great deke to get the goalie to commit to the backhand, then went back to his forehand and wrapped it around the goalie’s outstretched pad. It was one of my favorite goals of the year.

RPI made it 2-0 off of another really good move, this time from Brad McNeil. Ian Scherzer started the play by forcing a turnover on the forecheck. McNeil was then able to collect the loose puck and drive to the net since the defense was out of position after the turnover. McNeil drove on his backhand then cut to his forehand and elevated his shot over the glove of the Brown goalie for another nice finish from RPI. Brown scored less than 30 seconds later to cut the lead back to 1, so RPI went into the 3rd up 2-1.

Even though the 3rd was another pretty even period, RPI was able to put it away. Trevor Russell got a timely goal 7 minutes into the period to give the Engineers some breathing room, and from there it was smooth sailing. Tyler Wallace sealed the deal with an empty netter to get the 4-1 win.

Takeaways

1. The players they need to score who have disappointed so far are starting to come around. This is really important if RPI wants to make any sort of postseason run. The biggest issue offensively has been the lack of production from the top 6, but recently, they have gotten going, which is a great sign. Rullers had 2 points on the weekend and has 3 points in his last 4 games. Tinling also has 3 points in his last 4 games. Wilson had 2 points on the weekend and has 5 points in his last 4 games. Wallace had 3 points on the weekend and 4 points in his last 4 games. Tapper had 2 points on the weekend and finally got the monkey off his back with his first goal of the season. They need these players to keep it up in the second half.

2. I know Krawchuk has had a generally rough past two weekends, but I’m glad they’re sticking with him. He has clearly outplayed Bruveris the whole season, and he has earned the right to be the #1 the remainder of the year. Despite the struggles, it’s worth noting that Quinnipiac is obviously a top 10 team, and Princeton has had a pretty good year out of nowhere and is 4th in the league currently. What I liked most was the way he bounced back after 3 rough games including getting pulled during the Yale game. The night after getting pulled against Yale, he started again and bounced back in an awesome way with 30 saves on 31 shots and a big win. That shows excellent mental toughness. I’m glad the coaching staff stuck with him, and he certainly showed their confidence was well placed. Going forward, his development is key for RPI in this rebuild. Right now, there are no committed goalies, so he seems to be the main option for the future. He has the potential to be a #1 if he keeps improving his game, and even though he’s not at that level right now, continuing to start him will only help more down the line.

3. The young defensemen also continue to get loads of ice time, which I love. Sobieski has been leading the team in time on ice all year, and he’s averaging about 22 minutes a night currently. While he still has work to do defensively and he’s probably not ready to handle true #1 minutes yet, he has tons of talent and skill, and I think he’s done an admirable job in that role this season. Similarly, Klassek has a similar skill set, and he’s had a solid freshman year. His skating always stands out, and he has the skill and passing ability to go with it to be a great player. The two of them are great building blocks on the back end for the future, and I’m glad they’re getting the chance to develop with lots of ice time right now even though they weren’t fully ready for it. It’s really going to benefit them in the future. Going forward, I hope to continue to see them among the ice time leaders, and I’d also love to see Lemieux, Hilditch, and even Jovanovic get more run for development purposes. Their skill sets all vary but all have the potential to be good players that can fill roles on a good team, in my opinion.

The Mayor’s Cup is coming up on Saturday, and we can’t wait for that rivalry to be renewed! We will have a preview later this week. Let’s Go Red!

RPI was very game for 5 of their 6 periods this weekend against 2 of the ECAC’s best teams. Both Princeton and Quinnipiac find themselves in the top 20 of the national polls. RPI took a 2-1 lead to the 3rd period Friday night against Princeton, before allowing 4 consecutive goals to fall 5-2. Matthew Buckley scored a last-minute goal against Quinnipiac Saturday night to send the game to overtime, but Markus Vidicek scored with 17 seconds left in the overtime period for Quinnipiac. It’s a disappointing set of results for an Engineer team that has struggled to find wins this season. It hasn’t been for a lack of effort, but RPI has just seemed at a talent disadvantage to many teams this season. Nonetheless, this is a weekend for the team to build upon as it presses further into the 2nd half.

Friday: 5-2 Loss at #20 Princeton

Ben Syer’s group has been one of the biggest surprises in the country thus far, reflected in their first national ranking since the 2018-19 season. RPI had them legitimately on the ropes Friday night as the game pushed late in the 3rd period, but the floodgates opened, and boy did they open quickly. Luc Wilson scored both goals for RPI, as the graduate transfer continues his hot stretch to charge out to the team lead in points. A sloppy offensive zone turnover by the Engineers led to a quick breakaway for Princeton and a highlight reel goal. Princeton took all the momentum from there and ran RPI off their feet the rest of the way.

I’ll continue to highlight until I am blue in the face that this team plays the right way structurally, it just doesn’t have the horses to compete yet. RPI outshot and out chanced Princeton in this one, which is a testament to their effort and the systems they play within. It still feels like they are lacking the magic goal scoring touch, which may not come this season. But for now, I’ll take some form of a moral victory from the competitiveness with which they play.

Saturday: 4-3 OT Loss at #8 Quinnipiac

Quinnipiac is a blue blood every single year, and it’s been quite a while since RPI notched a win over them. Saturday looked like their best chance in some time, as a goal from Kaz Sobieski was the only marker at the halfway point. Quinnipiac got 2 in the second, but Rainers Rullers tied it early in the 3rd. Chris Pelosi’s late goal looked like it would be the difference maker, but Matthew Buckley tied it on a beautiful one-timer with just 14 seconds left. Buckley’s goal was one of the most exciting goals of the season and you could see the excitement on the bench after that one. It looked like this one was destined for a shootout, but the late goal from Vidicek sent the fans home happy. It was a disappointing outcome for RPI, who perhaps played their best game of the year against the #8 team in the country.

It was good to see the top line & Sobieski come alive in this one; this group has been silenced for a bit and RPI desperately needs them to score. RPI certainly put a scare into the Bobcats, but this group is hungry for more than just that. Hopefully this is momentum they can build upon with two winnable games (Yale and Brown) coming up this weekend. The Engineers badly need league points, and this upcoming weekend presents their best opportunity to date to pick them up.

Let’s not bury the lede, my expectations for year 1 under Coach Lang were essentially non-existent. With 19 new players, being short an assistant coach, and a recruiting pipeline needing to be torn down and built from scratch, this was not an easy lift. In fact, it might have been the hardest lift in college hockey this year. I am not saying Niagara is a powerhouse, RPI certainly didn’t just sweep Boston College. But, as they cap off a month of hockey where they went 5-5, with wins over Union, Clarkson, and Lowell, I have a ton of excitement looking toward the future.

There is a palpable feeling of seriousness that has been infused into the program since Lang took over. As I glance around the country and see Will Gilson, Felix Caron, Sutter Muzzatti, Tyler Hotson, and Max Smolinski thriving in their new spots, I find myself wondering how last year’s team struggled with that much talent. It feels like this group is getting so much more out of what they have than in the past, and that is really encouraging as a fan. Lang called on the returners to contribute earlier in the month, and we have seen guys like Rainers Rullers, Dovar Tinling, and Jimmy Goffredo step up. He said they need better goaltending, and both Krawchuk and Bruveris have stepped up big time in the past few weeks. The special teams needed attention, 6/7 on the PK this weekend and +1 on specials. The improvement feels noticeable week to week, and the system in which they play feels reliable and capable of being built upon. Once again, I don’t mean to say that Niagara is a dominant program, but it is nice to see the group get the results they have been working towards.

5 Things

1) RPI doesn’t have a top line, but they have 4 capable ones.

Coach Lang has been pretty up front about this, saying that the team is very reliant on the depth that it has. It feels like we have seen a new group step up every few weeks, starting with the Wallace-Sitar-Buckley line that was together, followed by Rullers and Tinling, and lately Luc Wilson and the 4th line have chipped in. I think RPI’s gritty defensive game and depth scoring is making them a difficult team to play against, despite their lack of high end talent.

2) Luc Wilson has had strong underlyings, but is finally getting puck luck.

Prior to the weekend, Wilson had 8 assists but hadn’t been able to get a goal home. He chipped in 2 goals and 2 assists this weekend, including the game winner on Friday and an assist on the game winner Saturday. Wilson leads RPI in scoring now with 12 points and has been one of the most impactful veteran pieces for this group.

3) Special Teams and Goaltending reverting to the mean.

I have referenced this piece a few times now, but after the non-conference slate we cited how RPI simply needed more from their special teams’ units and goalies to compete at all this year. Nate Krawchuk has clearly stepped up and seized the net, but Bruno Bruveris has had 2 excellent games of late that have also resulted in wins. Mathias Lange has gotten credit for the development of these goalies, which should not be understated when evaluating RPI’s recent success.

4) Emergence of the 4th line.

3 of RPI’s 7 goals this weekend came from their 4th line, including 2 from Jack Gorton who hasn’t seen much regular time this year. When you get solid goaltending, win the special teams battle, and get 3 goals from your bottom line, that is going to result in a lot of winning weekends. The metrics for RPI really haven’t changed, but the past few weeks have seen much more of a winning brand of hockey resulting from the little things. The 4th line is a big part of that.

5) One more weekend in the first half.

RPI will host Quinnipiac and Princeton at the Houston Field House this weekend in their final weekend of the 1st half. This year’s winter break feels a bit longer than usual, with RPI not returning to action until January 3rd when they head to UVM. Quinnipiac figures to be a tough matchup and Princeton is off to a strong start in year 2 of the Ben Syer era. Getting another win out of the weekend would help a lot with league points and the overall momentum of the team before the break.

It was a very successful weekend for the Engineers out in Buffalo, and a strong response after being swept against Colgate and Cornell. There is a lot to be excited about regarding the trajectory of this program right now, so let’s all enjoy the ride together. Stay tuned to the blog for more news about recent recruiting news and RPI’s conclusion to the first half!

The tide is starting to turn for the better for the ‘25-’26 Engineers, who now stand 3-3 in their last 6 games. Not only are they starting to win games, but they are beating legitimate programs such as Union, Clarkson, and UMass-Lowell. We did a piece on the blog a few weeks ago preaching patience as we expected goaltending and finishing to revert to the mean, and that has played out beautifully the 3 weekends. RPI has started getting much needed contributions from returners that they were missing, and Nathan Krawchuk has begun to emerge as the top goaltender. We’re still in very early stages of this rebuild, but seeing some good effort converted to wins is a welcomed sight for all involved. Let’s dig a bit deeper:

5 Things:

1. The “Systems” Look Highly Effective

I have been pretty honest on here all season long about the long-term oriented approach I am taking with the program given the coaching change. I want to see the team be good this year as much as anyone, but the reality is that what I’ll call “program infrastructure” is very important right now. The most important one is getting the recent coaching hire right, so analyzing how the team plays has been important to me.

Brendan and I said before ECAC play started that the team’s defensive metrics looked pretty good, they just needed the goalies to follow suit. That is starting to play out now and it is part of why they have given up so many fewer goals. The team just defends differently under Lang. You don’t see them get caught in their own zone for minutes on end, they don’t get drastically outshot by good teams, and they use a variety of strategies to break pucks out of their own end. To my eye test, it just looks like a sustainable structure to play, and one that will only elevate as recruiting picks up in years to come.

2. Nathan Krawchuk = Goalie #1?

It is hard to overstate how well Nathan Krawchuk has played in the past few weeks and what it means for this team and program going forward. The goaltending room was probably the team’s weakness on paper coming into the year, and it held them back the first few weeks. Since then, Krawchuk turned in an ECAC goalie of the week performance against Union and a shutout against UMass-Lowell Saturday. Bruno Bruveris also responded with a strong effort in RPI’s win over Clarkson a week ago.

Krawchuk is still somewhat raw and struggles to control rebounds, but you can see the potential from a mile away. He has a great frame, positions himself well and has an above average glove. In the short-term, it looks like he gives RPI its best chance to win.

3. Specials Trending The Right Direction

When I previewed the SLU and Clarkson weekend, RPI had one of the worst penalty kills in the country and combined PK & PP%s as well. To put it simply, goaltending and special teams had been killing them in the first few weekends of the year. Since then, RPI is 2/12 on the PP for 17%, and 13/14 on the PK for 93%. Safe to say this is trending up. As I said in point 1, the baseline 5v5 systems remain very important to me, but games are won with good goaltending and special teams. Krawchuk’s emergence and the positive inflection from the PK is what has driven RPI’s success recently.

4. Scoring With Depth

Coach Lang has said a few times that the team might not have a true first line, but it has a lot of 2nd and 3rd liners. But early in the season, the offensive output was coming almost exclusively from the Wallace-Sitar-Buckley line, and Klassek/Sobieski on the back end. For the team to have success, this was going to have to broaden out, which it has the past 3 weeks. Dovar Tinling and Rainers Rullers have 4 goals between them in the last 2 games, Jimmy Goffredo got his first this weekend, as did Trevor Russell. Luc Wilson has yet to score but leads the team with 8 assists. The Engineer depth is a welcomed sight and something I’d like to see continue forward.

5. Filip Sitar = 1C

I have been pretty blown away by the 2-way game of Filip Sitar thus far. He reminds me so much of Ture Linden during his 20 goal senior year here. As this roster is very young, I have been on the lookout for cornerstone pieces to spearhead this rebuild in the next couple years. Sitar sticks out to me more than anyone as the type of guy you can build a roster around. He leads RPI with 5 goals and 9 points so far and leads the forwards in time on ice by a wide margin. Lang seems to have unlocked him in a way UConn was unable to last year.

Things have been looking up for RPI to start November with 3 weekends left in the 1st half. They will head out to western NY for 2 with Colgate and Cornell this weekend. This will inevitably be a tougher weekend, but picking up a few points will go a long way to staying in the early ECAC race. Let’s go Red!

This weekend, RPI split Union with both teams winning on the road. This represented a big milestone for the Eric Lang era as Friday night was his first win at RPI. Pretty sweet that it comes against Union, and I have no doubts that it’ll be the first of many!

Friday

This game embodied everything this RPI team needs to be about to have success this year. There’s no disputing that this is a rebuild, and no one is expecting a lot of wins this year. However, that doesn’t mean they cannot be competitive against, and even beat, good hockey teams.

That was the case Friday night. RPI skated hard, finished checks, and competed their tails off. They will need to do that to beat any good team. Those are the non-negotiables; you can’t expect to beat anyone, let alone a good team, if you’re not competing hard.

On the ice, they were excellent in transition and were able to move the puck quickly through the neutral zone to generate offense. They were opportunistic with their scoring chances to get 3 goals through two periods and then able to shut it down at the end and get 2 ENGs.

Lastly, but certainly not least, Krawchuk was excellent in net. Union was also good at generating offense and scoring chances, but Krawchuk shut the door time and time again. He was the best player on the ice in the game and was the main reason RPI rolled out of Schenectady with the win.

That’s the formula RPI needs to win: compete hard, be opportunistic, and get good goaltending. Hopefully, we will continue to see it down the line.

Saturday

Saturday was unfortunately the opposite. From the moment the puck dropped, Union was all over RPI and thoroughly outcompeted them. Union clearly wanted it more the entire game, and they played with a level of desperation not seen from the Engineers. It was a pretty disappointing effort in a rivalry game at home.

The main issue to me though was just a ton of sloppiness. Tons of bad passes into skates or missing entirely, lots of passes not caught cleanly, lots of fumbled pucks, etc. It was especially frustrating on the power play when you have more time and space to ensure your puck handling and passing is clean. To me, it was another symptom of some of the lackadaisical play from RPI, and it’ll be impossible for them to win any games they play like that. There’s not much more to say than that for this game.

Krawchuk was again extremely strong in net, limiting Union to 2 goals on 35 shots, before they scored an empty netter at the end. Honestly, RPI deserved a worse score than 3-0, and they have Krawchuk to thank for keeping it respectable. It bodes very well down the road that he was able to put up great performances on back to back nights. I expect that RPI will keep rolling with him until he gives them a reason not to given how he played this weekend. This weekend thoroughly put him ahead of Bruveris for the #1 goalie role for the time being.

Looking Ahead

This week, RPI will welcome St. Lawrence and Clarkson to the HFH for some more ECAC games. We will have previews on those games soon. Let’s go red!

The Engineers have hit the ice 6 times officially so far, and the results have been far from what they’re looking for. Since the 2nd period of the first game, they have 5 goals in 5+ games, have struggled to keep the puck out of their own net, and have the worst statistical penalty kill in the country. At the end of the day, there are two things that matter in this game. How many you score and how many you give up, it’s as simple as that. But hockey analytics have gotten a lot more complex in the past 10 years, and a deeper look at the numbers show that this is nowhere near as bad as it looks. We’re going to comb through some numbers here and show that a regression to the mean feels very inevitable and RPI has been quite unlucky.

Analytics aside, RPI has played 3 ranked opponents, and their only unranked opponent is 6-0. We were pretty upfront on the blog that the early stretch could be rough, and unfortunately that has been the case. It is true however, that RPI was never going to be an at-large NCAA bid, so what did it really matter if they challenged themselves against BC or rolled over weak Atlantic teams. The results have been frustrating, but let’s parse through the data to take a more measured look at RPI’s start.

Bad Results, But Fine Expected Numbers

Chris: RPI has on average lost by 3 goals of a game, but their NxG (net expected goals) is just -0.33. Meaning, analytics that track high danger scoring chances, possession, etc. suggest that they should basically be give or take a 2-4-1 team against the toughest schedule in college hockey.

For those that are skeptical of what the numbers, think of it this way. Your net expected goals metric basically aggregates how well your skaters do at possessing the puck and the chances they develop from the places on the ice they put the puck/allow it to go. It is the best baseline to understand how a team should perform on any given night. But, there is a reason elite goal scorers like Alex Ovechkin have made careers out of burying the chances they receive. There are also reasons that goaltenders like Henrik Lundqvist are coveted, because they can carry bad teams to amazing heights. More to come on that later….

I view the proximity of net expected goals against this quality of schedule as an incredibly bullish indicator of what Coach Lang can do. In the past, RPI was perpetually out chanced and their xGA sat in the mid 3s consistently against weaker opponents. Old school fans will say that RPI’s defense looks porous thus far, but to see an expected goals against number of 2.7 against this quality of opponent suggests that Lang’s defense and possession models work incredibly well. It is also a positive indicator that this young core of defenders has a lot of potential and could get really good here.

Similar story here with chances, RPI is only getting outshot on average by 5 per night against this quality of schedule. That is a drastic improvement from years past, and shows that with more scoring talent and better goaltending, RPI will be very well setup.

OK… If everything is so great, why are they getting blown out?

Well, the goaltending has been bad. And, they haven’t finished almost any of their chances. Like I said, expected numbers are a fine “mean” to follow, but they don’t really matter if you finish less of your chances than you allow.

To me, underlying’s speak more to the quality of the system, whereas finishing and goaltending is reliant on the talent of the players in your system. I’d rather be excited about this new style of play seeming to work so far than a grad transfer who we may only have for 1 year. It just feels more sustainable now. But in the near-term, what does RPI need to correct so that this season isn’t lost?

Brendan: One number that really gives some context here is PDO. PDO is a team’s save percentage plus their shooting percentage. The Engineers have a PDO of 91.1% (4.7% shooting percentage + 86.4% save percentage). That is the lowest in the country.

At the college level, the majority of teams finish the season with a PDO between 97 and 103, so there is reason to believe that the Engineers have just had bad puck luck to start the season. They won’t have a PDO of 91 come March.

For reference, here’s how this season compares to the previous two. The underlying improvements (xG For %) are being masked by the fact the team is shooting at 4.7%.

We just need to have a little patience here, the goals will start to come.

Wallace-Sitar-Buckley… Top Line of the Future?

Chris: RPI has the makings of an exciting line, and better yet, they have a ton of eligibility left. Matthew Buckley has stood out to me as the most exciting young player (Sobieski makes an argument), and he has teamed up quite well with Filip Sitar and Tyler Wallace. Wallace plays the power forward type of role, Sitar the playmaker (although he has been the goal scorer so far), and Buckley the lethal scorer. These guys have all carried play very well and really been the only line generating action for RPI so far.

The Engineers dropped their first two games to Miami this past weekend. What started as a pretty exciting weekend with RPI going up 3-1 slowly petered out as Miami responded with 9 unanswered goals. Here were our big takeaways:

RPI Won the Possession Battle

One of the main reasons that this wasn’t a terrible weekend for the Engineers (despite blowing a 3-1 lead in one and losing the other 5-0) was the way in which they lost these games. They weren’t getting hemmed into their own zone, chasing the game, and taking penalties all weekend. Instead, they actually won the even strength possession battle (Corsi For %) both nights.

That only happened in 10 of RPI’s 35 games last season. And only 32 times in the past three seasons (107 games).

It’s a big reason these games felt quite a bit different to watch. RPI won puck battles, dominated faceoffs, and spent much more time in the offensive zone. Sure, it didn’t win them these games (and it might not be enough to win them many games this season!), but it sure is a good foundation to build off.

But They Had No Answer for Miami’s Top Line

Miami scored only one out of their ten goals without either Delic, Morozov, or Giampa on the ice. Those three were simply dominant. There wasn’t a combination of players that Lang could throw out on the ice consistently capable of shutting them down.

And that was the ballgame – Miami had a line that could capitalize big on mistakes, and RPI didn’t.

The VanDamme-Sobieski Pairing

One of the standouts on the weekend for RPI was the top defensive pairing of Gunnar VanDamme and Kaz Sobieski. They were fun to watch all weekend - solid defensively, while also being more than capable of causing chaos in the offensive zone. Sobieski picked up his first couple of points and looked right at home quarterbacking a powerplay. VanDamme didn’t get on the scoresheet, but he had several opportunities, including one where he nearly weaved through Miami’s entire team.

For two offensive-minded defensemen, they worked together well in their own zone. They’ll certainly be tested again next weekend against two strong teams, but for now, all signs point to them being a great tandem for the Engineers moving forward.

Goaltending

Bruveris and Krachuk split the goaltending time on the weekend with Bruveris giving up 4 goals on Friday (the 5^th being an empty netter) and Krachuk giving up 5 on Saturday. Here’s how that compared to the expected goals both nights.

Looking at single-game xG is often not super useful because it’s such a small sample size, but the main takeaway is that Miami scored several more goals than you’d expect from their shots/chances. And on Saturday, RPI probably deserved at least a goal or two from all the chances they generated.

This weekend could very well have been a fluke but, in general, giving up 5 goals more than expected over a weekend series is not something that can continue if RPI wants to win games.

Sunday’s puck drop to start the 2025-26 season in Boston wrapped up one of the most action-packed offseasons in program history. If not program history, then most definitely in my lifetime. It was rejuvenating to say the least, to feel like RPI’s administration had taken its flagship program by the horns and said enough is enough. A new head coach with championships upon championships to his name, a flashy new top assistant that can recruit with the best of them, nearly 20 new players, and millions of dollars being pledged to the historic Houston Field House headlined this busy offseason. Too many years went by where the program that meant so much to this school was treated as an afterthought and not seen as a true value-add to the RPI experience. I only begin with this rant because I was able to get out to BU yesterday for the game, and regardless of the outcome, I left with a good taste in my mouth because it feels like the dawn of a new era. RPI might not have a roster built for national championships again just yet. It may never be that program again. But there is a level of professionalism and seriousness that has been reinfused into the program again, and that felt very palpable Sunday night as the Engineers battled a loaded BU team very gamely. There is quite a bit of work to be done, but Eric Lang looks like he has a competitive, hungry squad to start building with in 2025.

The Engineers first period was by far their best and saw them generate multiple goal-scoring chances on BU netminder Max Lacroix. Alfred Lindberg got in alone on a shorthanded breakaway but was turned aside, and Mat Bourgault hit the cross bar on a similar opportunity later in the period. Bruno Bruveris was very game in his only period of action and turned aside all 11 shots that were thrown at him. BU looked a bit sluggish in the first and the Engineers really outhustled them to loose pucks, which sustained some extended zone opportunities.

Nathan Krawchuk took over in net for the second period in his collegiate debut, looking very calm and controlled. BU broke the ice late in the period on a funky play where a shot from the far circle hit off an RPI defenseman and ricocheted in. It wasn’t a goal you blame the goaltender for, but nonetheless they count the same. The Terriers got their legs under them as the game went on and started to control the majority of possession. At first glimpse of Coach Lang’s system, I was impressed at the defense’s ability to limit high-danger chances against such a potent attack like BU.

The Terriers really took control through the first half of the 3rd period and potted their second goal against Engineer goalie Carson Dorfman on the powerplay. The ice got a bit tilted as RPI didn’t register a shot until the final 5 minutes of the 3rd period. My only frustration with this game was how tired the team looked as the game wore on, which concerned me given the fact that every skater had dressed for the game. Matthew Buckley nearly scored on a rocket one-timer with the net empty, but the puck floated out to center and BU put the game on ice with an empty netter.

For RPI, the defense and goaltending were the winners of the day. Boston University may have the most supremely talented team in college hockey, and despite their puck possession advantages, it never truly felt like they had RPI on the ropes. The Engineers had sound zone exits, blocked shots, got into passing lanes and kept scoring opportunities to the outside. Bruveris and Krawchuk both played well and looked more than capable to be an effective platoon in net this season. I was impressed with quite a few of the newcomers, such as Gunnar VanDamme, Ian Scherzer, Thomas Klassek, and Luc Wilson. I do feel like the scoring will come especially with the depth RPI has, so seeing a very capable defensive system and newcomers that added to it was a welcomed sight.

The Engineers will kick off the regular season slate with 2 against Miami at the Houston Field House this weekend. The non-conference schedule is a bit of a gauntlet, and Miami figures to be much improved after a bad year last year. This should be a good early season test for RPI to put it all together and protect home ice. Stay tuned for our weekend preview and let’s go red!

RPI went up to the North Country on Friday and Saturday and came out with a hard earned split for what is always a challenging weekend. Let’s talk about the games!

Friday 4-1 Loss to SLU

Against St. Lawrence on Friday night, RPI just couldn’t really get the bounces they needed to get the win. It was a frustrating and annoying game. They didn’t play bad, but ultimately it just was not their night.

I’d say RPI was a little sloppy, but overall, the teams played about evenly. The difference in the game was that Dominic Basse was playing out of his mind and stopping practically everything. It was still a winnable game heading into the 3rd period with the score being just 2-0.

The Engineers came out hot to start the 3rd as well with some great zone time and scoring chances. But right after a shift with lots of zone time, St. Lawrence was able to get an odd man rush, and Giesbrecht allowed a soft goal through the five hole that he probably wants back.

Caron got a 6 on 4 goal to make it 3-1, but 30 seconds after that, RPI let up a fluke goal. McDermott lost an edge and slid right into Giesbrecht, taking him out of the play. SLU was able to score easily on the mostly open net. That play was pretty symbolic of the night.

Saturday 4-1 Win at #19 Clarkson

It was easy to assume that losing to the weaker of the two teams meant this would be a lost weekend with no points, especially since Clarkson is a top 20 team. RPI was determined to not let that happen though and came out with a win. Lots of credit belongs to the team for bouncing back in a big way.

RPI played well and earned that win. I think they controlled play the first two periods before Clarkson made a push in the third period. It was a full team game. They outcompeted Clarkson and battled hard all game. RPI won the majority of the puck battles in the game, and they were frequently the first to loose pucks. This helped them get more offensive zone time because they were great at retrieving pucks in the offensive zone after shots to keep possession. This in turn led to many quality scoring chances too. The defending was pretty good, and Giesbrecht had a great game in net as well.

The only real negative from the game was the third period was not good. Clarkson made a push, and the Engineers weren’t able to get as much going offensively. They also struggled to stay out of the box and took a few bad penalties that gave Clarkson multiple chances on the power play, which they eventually capitalized on. That gave Clarkson some life, but the defense and Giesbrecht held strong to get the upset.

ECAC Outlook

This weekend didn’t change much for RPI for their ECAC outlook. If they split the rest of their series, they’re probably looking at 8th in the league and home ice in the first round. If they can get one extra win in there to make it 7/12, they’re looking at either 6th or 7th in all likelihood. Both are pretty doable, but they have to make sure that they’re getting at least 3 points each weekend. Anything less than 6 wins in the 12 remaining games will likely send them on the road for the playoffs.

It takes two to call it a streak! A much needed 6 points on the road gives the Engineers a big boost as they get started in the second half of league play. The big weekend has vaulted RPI all the way from 12th to 8th in the ECAC, and they will head to the North Country next week looking to continue the momentum.

Friday: 5-3 Win over Yale

RPI Goals:

Caron PPG (Gilson, McDermott)

Hotson (Lee, Tapper)

Bergmanis PPG (Hotson)

Brackett SHG (McNeil)

Lee ENG

Coming into the weekend, Yale was one of the only teams in the country where RPI’s special teams’ units could hold an advantage over. This was exactly how the game played out, as RPI went a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play, added a highlight reel shorthanded goal, and an empty netter for 4 goals that did not come at even strength. Yale holds the worst penalty kill in the country at 64.4%, which the Engineers capitalized on with powerplay tallies from Felix Caron and Arvils Bergmanis. The Engineers had a goal waived off 30 seconds into the game for goaltender interference, but it did not take long for Felix Caron to get them on the board for good. Caron’s goal that opened the scoring came from the left dot and showcased his highly anticipated one-timer. A beautiful feed from Jake Lee set up Tyler Hotson to make it 2-0 just 2 minutes later. The two teams traded goals until Jack Brackett batted a puck out of the air on a shorthanded 2-on-1 for one of the more impressive goals you will ever see. The Engineers locked it down after a Ronan O’Donnell goal for Yale made it 4-3, and Lee’s empty netter sealed the deal. The Engineers won the SOG battle 40-28 and legitimately controlled play for the majority of the night. RPI had not won on the road at Yale in the regular season since 2012, and it was a much-needed win because they figure to be competing with the Bulldogs in the standings for the rest of the season.

Saturday: 4-3 Win over Brown

RPI Goals:

Gagnon PPG (Gilson, McDermott)

Goffredo (Tapper)

Lee (Tapper)

Tapper ENG

RPI followed up its solid effort in New Haven with a 4-3 victory over Brown last night in Meehan Auditorium. A 3-point night for Jagger Tapper powered the Engineers as they started the 2nd half of league play in impressive fashion. Jake Gagnon opened the scoring on the powerplay with a redirect on a Will Gilson blast. Gilson continues to impress and establish himself as the true #1 D-man on the team. Jimmy Goffredo threw one through traffic for his 2nd of the year, before Dean Bauchiero scored on a broken play to cut the lead to 2-1. Brown would tie it at 2 on a Brian Nicholas tally but it was a Jake Lee goal that would put the Engineers in front. Jagger Tapper added an empty netter, and the Engineers hung on despite a late Brown goal to cut it to 4-3.

A Look at the ECAC

RPI has risen into a tie for 8th with Harvard, who they would be slated to host at the Houston Field House if the season ended today. This weekend gave RPI significant momentum in the league which they must use to their advantage. In my view, the top 6 and the bottom 6 are pretty clearly divided in the league this year. I can’t see RPI jumping anyone at Cornell’s level or higher, but a strong second half could get them to 7th in my opinion. It is very early and Union in particular had been struggling prior to this weekend, but I do think that top tier is fairly solidified. The Engineers need to bear down and build upon this weekend, they cannot control what happens above them. These two games were much closer to the identity the team hopes to play to, and that is without a number of their expected starters. This weekend was a big step in the right direction, and now two important games at SLU and Clarkson await them.

It was a bit of a disappointing weekend for RPI with a tie and an overtime loss to Niagara. Both games were very close and could have gone either way, so it is a bit disappointing that they didn’t come of it with at least a split. Let’s talk about some key takeaways.

1. Sloppy play and bad penalties hurt them on Friday night. I’d say RPI was generally the better team that night. They had a good first period where they controlled the play. The second period is where it got really sloppy, and Niagara took advantage with lots of chances. Then, Hotson’s butt-ending major is probably the reason RPI didn’t win this game. I think it was an extremely soft call for a major; Hotson barely even touched the guy, which you can see on replay. Nonetheless, it was a terribly stupid move regardless of if it should or should not have been a major. There was just no reason to engage or make that contact at the end of the period; there was no scrum or anything of the sort that warranted it. That put RPI on a 5 minute major kill to start the 3rd period, and when Gilson took a bad penalty, they had to kill off a full 2 minute 5 on 3. They did well to get out of that with only one goal. More penalties in the period made it tough for RPI to control the play, and after not converting good chances in OT, this was a tie. It hurts because RPI probably should have won that game, but without Muzzatti and Tonelli in the lineup, they’re not good enough to get away with being that sloppy right now.

2. Injuries are already hitting the Engineers hard. RPI started out Saturday night with only 11 forwards and dressed Maguire at forward (he only had 3:21 of ice time and didn’t see the ice the entire second half of the game though). The problem got worse when Tinling went out for the game after only 1:37 of ice time. That brought them down to only 10 forwards in the lineup pretty much right away, and after reviewing the stats, Payant only got 7:10 of ice time and didn’t see the ice after his assist in the 3rd period. He didn’t appear to be injured, so that was weird to me since that essentially meant RPI was playing with only 9 forwards. I knew immediately after Tinling went down they might be in for a tough night, and if they don’t get a couple of forwards back soon, it is going to be a rough stretch.

3. RPI’s compete and battle level was impressive on Saturday. With only 10 forwards in the lineup, they looked pretty tired starting in the second period, and I wasn’t expecting too much. I was extremely impressed with the way RPI battled all game though. They fought back from a 2 goal deficit in the third period to send the game to overtime, and if it wasn’t for some terrible refereeing, they could have won this game too despite being so shorthanded. You can look at the loss and say it’s a bad result, but in my opinion, getting that game to overtime and having a chance to win is a good result given the circumstances. That compete level and ability to fight back into the game will bode well for the remainder of the season and shows strong leadership.

4. Speaking of the refs… man was that a horrendous showing on Saturday. The penalties were ridiculously lopsided, and while I think RPI was a bit undisciplined again, it was not nearly to the extent of that penalty discrepancy. I also have multiple gripes with specific calls. I complained about Caron’s penalty and misconduct on twitter, but after seeing the replay, that was a deserved penalty. If they weren’t down to 10 forwards, that penalty should have gotten him benched honestly. The part that was absurd though was giving Coach Smith a bench minor for asking for an explanation; apparently asking the officials for an explanation is simply too much for them. All he did was clap at them after they kept refusing to come over to the RPI bench to talk; it’s not like he screamed at them or anything. They handed Niagara a full 5 on 3 that they scored on, and it played a key role in the game.

   Then, the ending of the game made no sense whatsoever, and what the refs did was actually against the NCAA hockey rulebook. Niagara made contact with Giesbrecht just before the goal, and it got waved off immediately for interference. You can make the argument that Giesbrecht wouldn’t have made the save anyways, but as the rule is written, that doesn’t matter. If a player makes contact with the goalie in a manner that prevents him from playing the position, it doesn’t count, and that applied here. Directly after the goal, Jake Lee shoved the Niagara player towards the net and he ended up going directly into the crossbar. Lee got called for a deserved penalty for that, and Niagara was going to get a 4 on 3 PP. The refs reviewed the goaltender interference call and came out to talk to the captains without signaling. Then, Niagara challenged the penalty for a major, but when the refs came out from the review, they signaled good goal. THIS IS AGAINST NCAA RULES. I already posted why on Twitter, so here’s that explanation for those who didn’t see that.

   

   The paragraph stating this is written as follows:
   "When any aspect of the video replay criteria is challenged, it allows the referee to utilize all aspects of the review criteria of that specific situation to be judged (e.g., high stick challenged, but video shows the puck was kicked into the goal). A play challenged for goaltender interference, for example, may not be reviewed for a potential offsides infraction.”
   
   This essentially means that for goal challenges, you can review all aspects of a goal that could overturn it (goalie interference, high stick, kicked puck, thrown puck, etc.). However, you cannot review unrelated infractions on a coaches challenge as it explicitly states. You can’t review offsides or a major penalty on a goalie interference challenge, or vice versa, as examples.
   
   I also cannot for the life of me figure out how the goal was overturned even with the review. There was clear contact by Niagara directly before the goal; there was zero grey area. The only thing I can think of is they think the RPI defender initiated contact with the Niagara forward which led to contact with Giesbrecht? I don’t see that at all though. On my watch and re-watch, the Niagara player initiates contact with McDermott, loses his balance, and then makes contact with Giesbrecht and scores. I would love to hear some explanations about the goal and the bench minor on Coach Smith, but the ECAC never publicly announces anything of the sort. They did not follow NCAA rules on the goal call and screwed RPI. At minimum, RPI is owed an explanation and an apology for clear violation of the rulebook that caused them to lose in overtime. The only way we get any sort of explanation is if Coach Smith talks about it with Rodger Wyland on his weekly radio appearance Tuesday morning, so I will be tuning in for that.

5. Overall, my long term outlook on the team doesn’t even remotely change after this weekend. They need to clean up the penalties for sure, and that probably changed a win to a tie on Friday. I don’t think there’s anything you can take away from Saturday’s game though. When a team is that injured to the point they can’t dress a full forward group, I don’t care if it’s Denver, RPI or Stonehill, they are not going to play well. The officiating was bad too, and they still had a chance to win despite all of that. Now, they need to get healthy ASAP, so they are not still down forwards when they take on Union this weekend for games that matter much more.

Well, that certainly felt good. 14 goals from 11 different guys. Nearly every skater on the scoresheet. There were things we could nitpick here and there, but on the whole, it was a pretty darn good way to start the 24-25 campaign. Especially for a team missing its 1C and (arguably) best player.

Here are our biggest takeaways:

1. The Defense Can Move!

It didn’t take long to notice the new look defensive unit. Only a couple minutes into the first period, Will Gilson sprung forward and skated the puck deep into the offensive zone, weaving his way around the Canisus defenders to start a good spell of possession for the Engineers. And it would only continue from there. You couldn’t help but notice the three defensemen transfers all over the ice.

The McDermott-Gilson pairing, in particular, was dominant all weekend, both in the defensive zone and when they were together on the powerplay. They won puck battles when they needed to, but where they really shined was in transition. There were countless times when the puck would leave the offensive zone, end up with one of McDermott or Gilson, and they would immediately send a line-breaking pass up to a forward to start a new spell of OZ possession.

This idea of counterattacking as soon as the other team loses the puck is aggressive, but with the right players who can make the incisive passes needed, it can be hugely successful and lead to constant offensive pressure.

2. Beaton Moves From Center to Wing, and Thrives

One more subtle change in the forward group has been the coaching staffs’ decision to move Beaton out to the wing, instead of center, where he’s played for most of his RPI career. It’s a move that’s been made possible by Rainers Rullers, who has jumped straight into heavy minutes at center and has excelled.

At center, Rullers takes on more defensive responsibility, which has left Beaton in more of an “outlet” role. Rullers forces the turnovers/wins the puck battles, and then once the puck is back with RPI, Beaton can carry it forward into the offensive zone – something he excels at (just go watch his goal this weekend if you need proof).

Ideally, the team will have Sutter Muzzatti and Jordan Tonelli back in the lineup sooner rather than later, but the fact that Beaton, Rullers and Gagnon were immediately able to take on some tougher matchups and thrive is not a bad sign at all.

3. Hotson-Tinling-Lee Line Firing on All Cylinders

It’s no surprise that the Hotson-Tinling-Lee clicked this weekend – they’ve been playing together since the start of training camp and got their fair share of reps last season as well.

They looked good the first time they joined up in the series against Minnesota State last December, but it feels like they hit a new level this weekend. The three of them were on the first powerplay unit with Bergmanis and Smolinski, and were a constant threat, generating scoring chances left and right.

Their passing was quick and incisive, looking almost second-nature to them. If they had a bit more luck, they probably would have even scored a few more times on the 5-minute major penalties that kept coming RPI’s way.

4. Jagger Tapper Makes an Impact on the 4th Line

Not only did Jagger Tapper score his first couple of goals this weekend, but he also rang another shot off the post, set up a couple of scoring chances, and had several good defensive actions to break up play. It was probably as good of a first weekend as he could have imagined.

Tapper probably isn’t going to score 2 goals every weekend, but it’s clear he’s up to the college level. And for a team that needed some good depth pieces, Tapper looks like he could be a perfect fit. The defensive work is there, and he’s clearly got scoring upside as well. Certainly going to be an exciting guy to watch going forward.

5. An Improved Forecheck Reduced the Load on the Defense

One reason RPI gave up so many goals last season was that they couldn’t get long enough spells of offensive zone possession to give their defenders a break from defending. That was not the case this weekend. This weekend, RPI forechecked hard and effectively. They retrieved pucks after shots, forced turnovers, and didn’t give the puck away as frequently. It was relentless.

When the Engineers did end up in their own defensive zone, it wasn’t perfect. They had some bad moments akin to what we saw far too often last year: unsuccessful clears, blind passes leading to turnovers, etc. The difference is that they just weren’t in the defensive zone nearly as much.

Niagara should be a similar test this weekend. Let’s go score 14 more.